Our Valentine’s Day kid’s craft was inspired (indirectly) by my daughter’s preschool. Instead of buying Play-Doh, every month one of the parents is assigned to make homemade playdough for the classroom. January was my month, and I knew that as soon as we made it K would want to play with it. Instead of letting her play with the classroom playdough, I decided we would make a second batch just for us. Then I got to thinking about how I could make it even more fun…
Since my mother leaves her Christmas tree up through February (she takes down all of the Christmas ornaments and replaces them with hearts for Valentine’s Day), I decided K should make ornaments for Mimi. Of course, once we got going K decided she should make ornaments for everyone on her list. (Dear friends and family, if you are reading this, please act surprised when K presents her goodies!)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
Optional – food coloring or glitter.
Add all liquids to a sauce pan. Next add the dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Over medium heat continue stirring until the mixture pulls away from the sides and becomes clumpy. Remove from heat and continue to stir. At this point you will be able to pick up balls of playdough. Store in plastic container.
K was fascinated by the whole process, and loved helping to mix the ingredients. For our playdough, I decided to add red glitter. Unfortunately, I don’t remember how much I added. I just kept adding to the dry ingredients until it looked like it was mixed throughout. In hindsight, less is more on the glitter. It continues to come out of the playdough as you play with it, so we had red glitter everywhere. But it was fun.
Next we busted out the heart shaped cookie cutters and got to work making our ornaments. (Don’t forget to put a whole in your shapes if you are making ornaments, we used a straw.) The hearts took several days to dry thoroughly, flipping them daily to dry both sides.
If you don’t want to mess with glitter or food coloring, another idea is to use markers to color the shapes once they are dry.
This is a quick, easy and cheap project for kids. The only downside is the drying time.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Of course, we had to pay tribute to The Mouse too… 🙂 (Mickey & Minnie Mouse cookie cutter) Check out this Mickey Mouse Cookie Cutter for $1.39 shipped!
Note: If you just want to “play” with your playdough, store in an air-tight container between uses. (That’s what they do in my daughter’s class.) Plus since it is so cheap to make, when it starts to dry out just toss the old and make a new batch.
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Katie Gonzalez says
January 24, 2012 at 4:53 pmThese turned out really cute with the glitter! I like that your mom keeps her tree up and decorates it with hearts – so fun :). I have never made homemade playdough before, but is it possible to put it in a low heat oven for a little bit to speed up the drying time. Or would that bake them instead?
jen says
January 24, 2012 at 9:47 pmI am sure you could put them in the oven for a bit. I really didn’t think it would take that long to drive, so just figured I would leave them out. But I am sure it would work, just watch it so they don’t brown.
Momma says
January 24, 2012 at 9:53 pmI promise to be surprised 🙂 Mimi
Cherilyn says
January 24, 2012 at 10:14 pmI am wondering if you wanted to use it as real playdoh, I guess you would put in air tight containers to prevent drying out?
jen says
January 24, 2012 at 10:32 pmYep. Works GREAT as regular playdough. It will last for a couple weeks in an air tight container (that’s what they do with it in school). And since it is so cheap to make, when it dries out just toss it and start again!
Donna B. says
January 24, 2012 at 11:17 pmWhat a great idea! We’ve done something similar at Christmas for homemade ornaments as gifts, but I never thought about using it for other holidays.
Melissa says
January 25, 2012 at 12:58 pmI love this!
LeeAnn says
January 25, 2012 at 9:17 pmWhat a fun idea! I might just have to make some of these up with Rylie this weekend. Thanks for sharing!
Jan Messali says
January 26, 2012 at 12:15 amWe’ve made playdough, but I never thought to put glitter in it. These turned out very pretty.
Vanessa says
January 26, 2012 at 2:12 amgreat craft idea! Love the mickeys! thanks so much for sharing!
Kristen S- Craft Gossip says
January 26, 2012 at 5:27 pmThese ornaments are great! I love the way the playdough looks with the specks of glitter in them! Just posted on Craft Gossip.
http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=5453
Charlotte says
January 27, 2012 at 3:26 amWhat a cute idea.
odessa frey says
January 27, 2012 at 2:21 pmThese are PERFECT for my kids!!!! We will be making these this weekend! ( The Mouse included ;))
Jamie says
January 14, 2013 at 8:06 pmWhat a fun activity to do with children =)
Ellen Christian says
January 16, 2013 at 2:58 pmThat looks like fun. What a neat idea!
Erica says
January 19, 2013 at 9:54 amMy son would love the mouse one!
Brenda @ Chatting Over Chocolate says
December 9, 2013 at 8:41 amGood morning, Jen! I’m stopping by to let you know that I featured your adorable Mickey ornament on my blog today! http://www.chattingoverchocolate.com/2013/12/diy-disney-christmas-ornaments.html … Thanks so much for sharing! Merry Christmas to you and yours!!
hannah says
February 9, 2015 at 2:36 amso, if we wanted to draw on them with marker– would we do that before they dry or after? also, do you think painting them with acrylics could work too? thanks!
jen says
February 9, 2015 at 11:14 amHi Hannah – I used a Sharpie to add the date on the back of our ornaments AFTER it was dry. I have not tried painting them, but I think it would totally work. Have fun!
AAC says
August 14, 2015 at 12:41 amHi! What a cute idea! I want to try this with my kids, but i have a couple of questions:
1. What kind of oil did you use?
2. Any kind of marker would work? Like for example, Crayola markers?
3. How fragile is the ornament?
Thank you in advance and thank you for sharing!
jen says
August 19, 2015 at 9:04 pmHi, this is such a fun thing to do with kids! Here are the answers to your questions.
1) Vegetable oil
2) Yes, you can use any markers to color the playdough. Just be aware that they will bleed, so you don’t get sharp lines just pretty colors. Sharpies bleed a bit less, but still bleed.
3) Thicker will be less fragile, but take longer to dry. Ours were medium thickness, and plenty sturdy. I could break it if I wanted to, but we had those ornaments for years.
Hope this helps, have fun!